The full moon loomed heavily overhead, and Daphne waited just beyond the edge of the wards in the shadow of a large oak. Her eyes flickered around with every rustle of the leaves and grass around her.

It had been their meeting spot for the last five years. Cormac may have been an abrasive and rash Gryffindor during their Hogwarts years, but that had been what made him perfect for the job. He had been open and loud about his views in those years, and silent about them changing in the years after the war.

A thin whistle echoed through the trees, and Cormac appeared next to her a moment later.

"Everything's set?" Daphne asked immediately.

"Hi, Daphne. I'm good, and you?" Cormac rolled his eyes, and continued without waiting for a response. "They should be knocked out for the next few hours. I'm not sure if I got all of them. Some may have missed dinner."

"It can't be helped." Daphne shrugged.

"Yeah, I can't be bothered to hang around this lot any longer," Cormac grumbled. "I saw enough bloodshed during the war to continue seeing it every day."

Daphne offered him a sympathetic look.

"Let's get this over with, then. Lead the way. Hopefully we'll find ourselves back in Britain by sunrise."

With a stolen guest pass pressed into Daphne's hands, the wards welcomed her into the compound. The suddenly visible buildings barely brushed the tops of the trees. It really was no wonder they had never found the place before Cormac had been sent in.

Freeing the dragons went smoothly. The Silencing Charms the dragon traffickers had placed on the cages and dragons themselves turned out to be incredibly useful.

The problem came after they thought they had finished the mission.

"Do you hear that?" Cormac asked hesitantly. Daphne could almost hear the frown and trepidation in his voice.

"I don't hear anything. Let's go before we're caught," Daphne started before the sound of crackling reached her ears.

Smoke drifted from one of the buildings near the first cages they had unlocked.

"Vindictive things, dragons."

Daphne barely caught the glance Cormac threw her way, and she was much to slow to stop him from running towards the growing smoke.

No more bloodshed.

Daphne cursed and raced after Cormac, but without him to lead her, she ended up getting a little lost on the way and only reached him long after the flames had engulfed the building.

Whichever dragon had set the building on fire had long since disappeared without touching a single other building.

Cormac staggered out of the flames a moment later, an unconscious body slumped over his back.

"You've studied a bit of healing, right? Take a look at these guys to see if they'll be fine. There's still one more person I need to get out of there," Cormac huffed.

"As dragon traffickers, they didn't think to protect their building against dragon fire?" Daphne commented.

Cormac shrugged, taking a moment to catch his breath as he cast a spell to reveal the location of the last occupant of the building.

"You should go soon. This is going to wake the rest of them up, if it hasn't already. If someone saw you before this, I can say they were barely awake and saw me."

"You won't be able to leave before everything's wrapped up, if you stay," Daphne said quietly, wand moving in familiar diagnostic patterns. They were fine. Minor smoke inhalation, but she cast the Bubblehead charm on each of them as she went just in case.

"No more people need to die. Our purpose here was to free the dragons, not to kill these people. The people are for the Ministry to deal with, but we need someone to let the Ministry know to send people."

Cormac didn't give Daphne the chance to respond, casting the Bubblehead charm on himself and running into the burning building.

"Alright, I'll just leave the rest to you then."

Written for Hogwarts: [663 words]

Assignment 6: Healer Studies - Task 6: Write about a fast approaching deadline

Spring Funfair: Guess the number of eggs in a jar - Undercover!AU

Spring Funfair: Cherry Blossoms: Akebono Cherry – Write about something ending after 5 or more years have passed

Spring Funfair: Urban Safari Checklist: Kori Bustard - (character) Cormac McLaggen

Spring Funfair: Paint a rainbow: Red – "I don't hear anything."

Spring Funfair: Tree Planting: Cherry – (creature) Dragon

Spring Funfair: Bird House Building: Step 2 – (character) Daphne Greengrass

Spring Quarterly: Leaving on a jet plane: Las Vegas - (action) following someone